“That’s an amazing story, Major Randolph. I didn’t know any women were doing such things. How does she manage it?”
“She and her family have Union officers over to their home for dinner parties. Given enough wine,” he laughed and raised his near-empty glass, “men do have a way of going on about themselves. Antonia keeps a sharp ear out. Any information she gleans that might be of use to our armies she delivers herself, riding out to the lines in the night. Damn fine job she’s doing! Only…”
“Only what, major?”
“Only she needs help. Some people have guessed her identity—people who shouldn’t know. If she had an accomplice who was daring enough to ride out in her place so that our people still got the information, but Miss Ford had an alibi, suspicion would shift from her.”
“Are you suggesting, major…?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, ma’am,” he replied. “I’m only saying that the need is there, if someone wanted to help.”
Lilah eyed him suspiciously. “What makes you think I can be trusted with this information? Yankee spies are rampant in this city, I’ve heard. And what makes you think I’d undertake such a dangerous mission?”
He smiled and took Lilah’s hand in his. “I’m not a drunken fool, Mrs. Patrick. Our meeting wasn’t by chance today. I’ve been waiting weeks for the proper opportunity to make this proposal. Your background’s been thoroughly checked by headquarters. As for your reasons, I’d assumed that any widow would jump at the chance to do something for the cause her husband gave his life for.”
Lilah stared into the fire for a few minutes, considering. What about the children? Under normal circumstances, she’d never leave them. But this was wartime. If she could do anything to help speed its end….
“I’ll do it!” she said to the major. “When do I leave for Virginia?”
He bowed over her hand, then answered, his blue eyes twinkling, ‘Tomorrow, dear lady!”
Steele Denegal received his new orders the same day Lilah accepted her dangerous assignment. But before his transfer to General Heintzelman’s staff, he would go home to Key West for a much needed rest.
He arrived by military transport, went to Fort Taylor to report to Colonel T. H. Good, then headed straight for the house on Greene Street.
Steele thought about Caroline with a pang of guilt. He had admitted to himself and to Lilah that day on Rainbow Hammock that he still loved her. Would things be different now between him and his wife? He did love Caroline, he reasoned, but it was possible to love two women at the same time—in different ways, to different degrees.
He swore under his breath, “Dammit! I should have been a Mormon! Man was not meant to be monogamous!”
Steele opened the front door quietly. He heard the clock in the hallway ticking, the canary singing in the breakfast room, but all else was quiet.
“Anybody home?” he called.
Maggie, not Caroline, came racing down the stairs to meet him. She threw herself into his arms and gave him a smacking kiss.
“Oh, Steele, no one told us you were coming home!”
“That’s because I didn’t know myself in time to send word. But what are you doing here, Maggie?” He gazed down at a changed woman—her gown a demure, yellow muslin, her face without paint.
“I’m the new nurse,” she said proudly. “Caroline couldn’t find anyone to suit her. She’s so careful with little Jeff Davis. So I applied for the job. Oh, Steele, it’s been just grand! Caroline and I have buried the hatchet. She’s teaching me to read and write. And I do love Jeff Davis so!”
Steele winced at the name and shook his head, despite his pleasure at being home. This had been his wife’s one flagrant insult toward the Union since their marriage. He’d been away at the time of his son’s birth, and had no say in the matter. When Caroline had been called in for questioning about the name, she’d insisted that she had “a dear uncle” for whom the child was named. What could the authorities do? What could anyone do with a woman like Caroline Mallory Denegal!
“Steele, darling!” Caroline came sweeping through the front door. She ran into his arms and kissed his lips, his beard, his nose—devoured him as best she could.
“Beg pardon!” Maggie giggled. “I’ll be going up to make sure little J.D. don’t come downstairs, if you two plan on doing it right here in the foyer!”
“Oh, Maggie, you’re such a tease!”. Caroline laughed. “Run get Jeff Davis and take him for a good, long walk.” She was unbuttoning Steele’s shirt. She ripped it open and ran her fingers through the hair on his chest. “You must go, you see, because we’re going to do it all over the house!” She whirled away from Steele long enough to loosen her own clothing. “In every room, on every couch, in all the beds, and on the floor,” she sang out, taking her husband’s hand and tickling his palm with her tongue.
“Caroline!” Steele said, shocked by his wife’s abandon. “What about Maggie and J.D.?”
“They’d better leave soon if they don’t want to watch!”
Maggie paused long enough in the hallway for Steele to hug his son, then ran out of the house, shouting, “He’s all yours, Caroline! Go to it, girl!”
After an exhausting but exquisite afternoon of lovemaking, which indeed included most of the house, Steele lay in his own bed with Caroline trying to arouse him once more.
“My God, Caroline!” he rasped, removing her hand from his sore gonads. “What’s got into you?”
“Nothing lately,” she answered, laughing.
“You were always high-spirited, but some of the things you’ve done this afternoon. I’m astounded!”
She giggled and flicked her tongue into his ear. “Maggie and I made a trade. I’m teaching her to read, and she’s teaching me what she knows.”
“Oh, Lord help me!” Steele groaned, rolling on his stomach. “I’ll never survive a wife with whorehouse training!”
“The best of both worlds, my love,” she purred. “Oh, I’m so glad you’re home, Steele. Now we can really begin our lives.”
He’d dreaded this moment, but it was inevitable. He drew her into his arms and kissed her tenderly.
“What was that for?” she asked suspiciously.
“That was for loving me, darling. Enough not to strangle me when I tell you we only have two days.”
She dug her fingernails into his arms and cried, “No, Steele! I won’t let you go! If you go you’ll never come back to me!”
“I will. I promise.”
“Where are you going?”
“Can’t tell you. Confidential.”
Caroline flung herself off the bed and ran to the dressing room. Steele wondered if she’d gone for a nail file to stab him to death. Instead, she paraded back in, her naked body draped in a Confederate flag.
Steele jumped up and tore the thing from her, ripping it to shreds.
“Dammit, Caroline! You know better than to have one of these in the house!”
“Go ahead. Tear it up. I have plenty more, and I plan to fly one every day until you return!” She waited for a response, but got none. “Steele, are you still going?”
“Yes!”
Their eyes and wills met then in a clash more explosive, though not as loving, as their bodies had known moments before.
Chapter 25
FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA
December 6, 1862
Violet Grafton, the name Major Randolph had bestowed on Lilah as both an alias and a password, stood on the front porch of Mr. E. R. Ford’s comfortable, brick home in Fairfax, Virginia. She rapped a second time, and looked down the main street to the old courthouse as she waited for someone to answer.
A light snow began to fall. She watched, transfixed by the silence of it—the swirls dancing in the lamplight, softly cloaking the street.
“Yes?” A woman’s voice took her attention.
“Miss Ford?” she asked of the slight, pretty girl with great hazel eyes. “I’m Vi
olet Grafton.”
Antonia Ford gave her midnight visitor one grave look, glanced up and down the street, then tugged Lilah inside. “We’ve been expecting you. Do come in out of the cold, Violet.” Then she covered her mouth to stifle a giggle.
Lilah found nothing amusing about the situation. She’d been traveling by various means for over a week to reach Virginia from Savannah. She’d caught a terrible cold. Tonight she’d missed supper, and she was chilled and weary.
“I’m sorry,” Antonia said, leading Lilah to a seat before the fire in the parlor. “It’s a private jest between a friend and myself in which you are directly involved.”
Lilah sank gratefully into the wing chair and pulled off her gloves to warm her hands by the blaze. She fished out a hanky from her pocket to catch a violent sneeze.
Antonia, wearing her flannel night dress, wrapper, and a lace-edged cap, walked to and fro, considering Lilah from all angles.
“Don’t you want to know about the joke, Miss Violet Grafton?” she asked, seeming annoyed.
“Of course.” Lilah nodded. “Please tell me.”
“Good! You need more than your share of curiosity in this game we play. Remember that. Violet Grafton is the name of a character patterned after me in a book which my friend, John Esten Cooke, swears he plans to write after this war is over. Since this secret is between Mister Cooke and myself, I thought the name most appropriate for my accomplice,” Antonia finished, smiling at Lilah. “Now, you look bone weary, and I’m sure you’re hungry. The servants are asleep, so I’ll go to the pantry and see what I can find for you. Then we’ll talk.”
Lilah leaned back in the chair and closed her eyes. What was she doing here? She had responsibilities—two small children. They were in Savannah by now with Kingdom and Rhea. They would be fine. This foray into the unknown could give her life purpose, meaning.
“There you are.” Antonia set a tray of roast chicken, yams, hot biscuit and honey in front of Lilah. “And would you like coffee or tea?”
“Coffee?” Lilah cried in disbelief. “We haven’t had any real coffee in nearly a year. Wherever did you get it?”
Antonia offered her a conspirator’s smile. “One of the advantages of staying on friendly terms with both sides.”
“That’s one thing that bothers me about this whole situation,” Lilah confessed. “How can you remain calm and amiable with the Yankees? My husband died after Shiloh, his death a total waste of a good man. Now, I’m supposed to forget that a Yankee bullet took his leg and then his life? Act as if I enjoy their company?”
“Violet, you must put all such thoughts from your mind. It’s a trick. Keep the war on the edge of your subconscious. Think of the officers in blue you meet here as men—charming men, most of them. Think of yourself as a young belle acting her part. I’m sure it will come quite naturally to you after a short time.”
Lilah shook her head. “I’ll do my best. But when I think of poor Brandon and his two fatherless children…”
“You mustn’t think of them! Think of this as a mission to end the war and save lives!”
“I’ll try.”
“I know you will.” Antonia reached out and took Lilah’s hand in a gesture of confidence and friendship.
“When do we begin?” Lilah asked, feeling more sure of herself.
“We’ve already begun, with this talk. But our first visitors will be here tomorrow night for Sunday supper.” Antonia pulled her chair closer to Lilah’s, her face intense now. “Three Federal officers are coming, Captain Francis Elkins, who’s with the War Department, Major Joseph Willard from General McDowell’s staff, and a replacement officer who’s reported this week to General Heintzelman’s command. The general is commandant of troops and prisoners within the District of Columbia. Our main objective is to glean any information we can from the dinner conversation as to troop movements within this area. The men love to puff themselves up in front of fluff-brained young ladies. So the trick is to make them think you are just that while you’re busy filing away the slightest hint they drop. You ride, I assume.”
“All my life,” Lilah answered.
“Good! We’ll have our most difficult time after our gentleman callers leave. Then we hit the leather and beat it through the night to the closest soldier in butternut and gray. The army has scattered pickets stationed not too far from here to receive our intelligence. We deliver our information, then get home before dawn without being picked up by a Yankee patrol.”
Lilah caught the excitement in Antonia’s voice. The woman’s eyes glittered with deep-burning passion.
“You love doing this, don’t you, Antonia?”
“Yes,” she whispered. “In the beginning I used my talents out of pure patriotism. But over the past year it’s turned into an adventurous game. Oh, I don’t mean to make light of the war. Far from it! But how many women are given the opportunity to face men as equals, and best them?” She lowered her eyes, seeming embarrassed by her own enthusiasm. “I have to admit, Violet, it thrills me!”
Antonia let the exhausted Lilah sleep most of the next day. Around four, she knocked lightly at her bedroom door.
“Come in,” Lilah answered.
Antonia swept into the bright bedroom with its cottage furniture and marbletop washstand, and closed the door behind her. “Good afternoon, Sleeping Beauty!”
Lilah laughed with her new friend. “I did get more than my share, didn’t 1? You should have wakened me.”
“Nonsense! You needed the rest after that trip.” Antonia went to the wardrobe and looked through Lilah’s gowns. “Hum-m-m,” she said to herself as much as to Lilah. “All these widow’s weeds won’t do. Aha! This lilac number is perfect! It even goes with your name. What’s this?” She reached into the bottom of the closet and drew out the black wig.
Lilah laughed. “There’s a long story behind that hairpiece. Sometime when we have nothing better to do, I’ll tell you all about it. I really don’t know how it got packed.”
“Try it on,” Antonia ordered.
Lilah did, and peered in the mirror at herself.
“Perfect!” Antonia said. “Wear it from now on when anyone other than the family is in the house. If I am in danger, as I’ve been told, that wig will give you an added advantage. No one would ever suspect you are Violet Grafton without it. Your own hair, lovely as it is, does have a very identifiable color. Quickly, now! Our guests will arrive within the hour.”
“Antonia,” Lilah said, catching the other woman’s hand, and staring into her hazel eyes, “do you think I can carry this off?”
“You’d better, Violet dear! Our lives depend on it!”
Antonia exited in a swish of bright ruffles and a waft of vanilla. Lilah hurriedly slipped into her dress, then donned the dark wig, and examined her image in the mirror.
She looked amazingly different from the other two times she’d wom the wig—first as Queen Delilah and later as Kingdom’s pregnant wife. Since Ruth’s birth Lilah’s figure had achieved a new fullness. The long curls framing her face were all wrong for her now. She piled the hair high atop her head, securing it with ivory combs. This style made a startling difference in her looks, accentuating her high cheekbones and brow. She liked this new, more mature image.
She did not like what the trip had done to her skin. Chill winds had chafed her cheeks and her nose was bright pink from the cold she’d picked up along the way. Lilah applied layer upon layer of powder until the redness was disguised as a healthy glow.
“There!” she said, giving her nose one last pat with the puff.
She stood back to examine her reflection. She decided this disguise was the best ever. Lilah Patrick had vanished. This new woman was Violet Grafton!
When Lilah entered the parlor downstairs, Mrs. Ford, Antonia, and her younger sister, Patti, all voiced their approval of Lilah’s new look. Then they settled themselves to wait for their guests.
Antonia paced nervously. When she s
aw the anxious look on Lilah’s face, she waved her hand as if to dismiss the other woman’s fears, and said, “Don’t mind me. I always get jumpy just before they arrive.”
Patti said in a voice only a little sister could muster, “She’s afraid Captain Willard won’t come. Antonia’s sweet on him.”
“Oh!” Antonia said through gritted teeth. “If you weren’t sixteen, Patti, I’d whale the daylights out of you!”
Lilah laughed nervously, and asked, “Is it true?”
“Wait’ll you see them together, Violet,” Patti teased. “Antonia’s all ‘Yes, Joe’ and ‘How clever you are, Joe’. And the way she bats her eyelashes! Why, you’d think they’d drop right off in her soup!”
Lilah looked at Antonia, perplexed. The thought of this rebel spy being enchanted by a Union officer made her feel outraged.
Antonia blushed. “Well, he is a fine man, even if he’s in the wrong army. Besides, he’s from right near here—Washington. He and his brother, Henry, own Willard’s Hotel. It’s one of the centers of Washington society.” She glanced out the window. “Oh, here they come now!”
Major Willard came first through the door. Lilah noticed that he pressed Antonia’s hand longer than a normal greeting required, and his eyes seemed locked in her gaze. Then he remembered himself and the others.
“Ladies, so nice to see all of you. Antonia, you know Captain Elkins.” The tall blond officer bowed and smiled all around. “And this gentleman,” Willard continued, “is Major Steele Denegal, freshly arrived from a much warmer climate, the lucky bast—uh, fellow!”
Lilah felt that if she looked down at her bodice she would surely see a fluttering motion there. Steele Denegal! She had to force her mind away from their last meeting on Rainbow Hammock to avoid turning crimson. He reached for her hand as Antonia introduced her around the room.
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